


Comic // Cosmic

by sakasamahoshizora



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga), Code Name: Sailor V
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28125645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakasamahoshizora/pseuds/sakasamahoshizora
Summary: Minako liked to joke that she’d met Artemis ‘volleyball-first’...As in, her super awesome smash had smashed directly into his poor kitty face.Luckily Artemis was the forgiving type...
Kudos: 1





	Comic // Cosmic

“Good evening all you lovely people! Although I guess I should say good afternoon, since it’s twelve o’clock here. It’s been a week since I arrived in London, and lots of people have been asking about it, so today I’d like to give you all an update about where I am and what’s going on! To begin with, check out my awesome lunch…!”

Three hours later, after chatting with the listeners, playing a few rounds of a new video game, and answering some more questions about her move to England, the stream ended and Minako threw her hands up in the air to stretch. She leaned back as far as was just past safe to look out the window. The sky was high and blue, and the breeze coming in was pleasant and inviting. That settled it, no sense spending her whole Saturday indoors.

She shuffled to the wardrobe and stripped off the t-shirt and sweats reserved for lounging around at home. Once she was satisfied with her denim skirt and oversized hoodie ensemble, she grabbed her bag and phone and poked the white cat pretending to nap on the bed in the side of the head with her toe.

“Artemis, I’m gonna do some window shopping and maybe grab dinner at a pub, you coming?”

Artemis opened one eye and regarded her critically. “Are you even allowed in a pub?”

“So long as I don’t order alcohol, yes,” she informed him cheerily. “I already googled it.”

Artemis yawned and set his chin back on his paws. “You go ahead. This sunbeam has me in its embrace and I can’t move.”

“Suit yourself.” Minako skipped to the door and grabbed a pair of retro 90s-esque sneakers that complemented her outfit. “Later.”

In the lobby of her building Minako ran into a tall girl with a long blonde braid down her back checking her mailbox and greeted her, “Hi, Chloe.”

“Hello, Minako,” she returned the greeting, “just heading out?”

Minako squee’d internally at Chloe’s French accent and nodded. “The weather is so nice I just needed to go out. Want to come with me?”

“Oh, I would love to, but I must go to the library to work on that paper we have due this week.”

Minako stopped short. Right, the paper, she’d forgotten about that.

It clearly showed on her face because Chloe shot her a knowing grin. “Sure you don’t want to join me?”

“I probably should but the sun and the shops call to me.” Minako struck a dramatic pose and mock staggered for the door. “See you later!”

Minako hummed to herself as she strolled to the bus stop and then spent the short ride downtown checking Instagram and Tik Tok, pleased to see she was gaining new followers. Sure, the move to London was a secret mission disguised as a study abroad program, but it had certainly given a massive boost to her following as an online personality. Like the secret mission thing, it was something she had fallen into mostly by accident; recording covers of her favorite vocaloid songs and discovering that people liked them. Her mother had raised her on a healthy diet of Hello Project, Arashi, and AKB48, so it only stood to reason that the idea of Aino Minako: sparkly idol singer appealed to her very, very much.

But back to that secret mission thing, and the real reason she had come to London.

Minako’s second passion had always been volleyball. Here in the UK everyone was super into football, but the only sport she cared about was volleyball. She liked to joke that she’d met Artemis ‘volleyball-first’...

As in, her super awesome smash had smashed directly into his poor kitty face.

Luckily Artemis was the forgiving type.

So yeah, she met Artemis in volleyball practice, followed by an encounter with a youma, and he magicked up a crescent moon-shaped compact mirror that transformed her into a magical girl that fought… against… uh… something. That’s what they were in London to find out.

Why London?

Well, going by what little Artemis remembered and a particularly chatty youma, the nebulous mysterious enemy was searching for some kind of treasure that had belonged to some sort of royal family and when one thought of a prominent royal family that owned world-famous treasure…

It made sense to Minako anyway.

Actually… come to think of it…

She took out her phone and tapped around, quickly looking up the information she needed then hopping on the subway. Her first week in London had primarily been devoted to settling in and getting oriented at school; so tourist-y things and stuff related to her secret mission had been relegated to the back burner. That ended today. Artemis would be proud of her initiative.

Minako paid the entrance fee to the Tower of London and wandered around until she overheard someone asking, “Are they real?” and knew she was in the right place. She casually meandered into the room with her hands in her front pocket and observed the display with bland curiosity.

The crown was objectively impressive in a ‘wow, that looks heavy’ sense, and something about the shape of the orb and the scepter niggled at malformed almost-memories in the back of her mind, but if something was supposed to stand out, it didn’t. At least not to her. The gemstones were impressive in the same way, and the other memorabilia was worth the price of admission but probably not worth the end of the world as they knew it or anything.

She was reading the placard detailing the history of the gilded golden spoon that was weirdly part of the collection when someone close by chuckled and caught her attention. Minako stepped back and looked over (and up) at the tall young man the laugh had come from. He stood a full head taller than her, with tousled platinum blond waves that curled around his eyes and high cheekbones.

He scratched behind his ear apologetically. “Sorry, you just looked so cute mouthing the words as you read.”

Minako blushed defensively. “I’m still learning.”

He chuckled again. “My bad, I hope you don’t think I was making fun of you.”

“You kinda were,” Minako countered, making sure to keep her tone sunny so as to prevent him from getting the wrong idea and thinking she was actually insulted.

“I didn’t realize English was your second language!”

She squinted at him in good natured umbrage, then shrugged. “Fair enough.”

“Can I make it up to you?”

Oh-ho, a smooth talker, was he? “How hard an effort are we talking here? I have homework to do.”

A foppish grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Coffee?”

“Consider yourself forgiven.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Minako.”

“Minako,” he repeated, his accent adding a small lilt to the first syllable. “I’m Dan.”

Dan was pleasant company; coffee turned into dinner and then Dan saw her to the subway station. They exchanged contact info, and parted with the promise to go play video games at an arcade together the next weekend. Aside from gaming, they also shared a love for Vocaloid producers like Mitchie M and PinocchioP and while they didn’t agree on sports, they had both played on school teams before until circumstances dictated they had to quit. For Minako that was coming to London (as well as her secret mission but he didn’t need to know that) and for him it was taking on a part-time job (that he seemed kind of cagey about going into detail about but it wasn’t Minako’s place to pry).

When Minako returned to her apartment/dorm room she was floating on air.

Artemis shot her a disgruntled cat look as she came in. “Must’ve been some pub.”

“Actually I was working. Kinda. Sorta. I took a field trip that turned into something that kinda sorta maybe wassomethinglikeadate?” Minako squealed at the end and clapped her cheeks with joy.

Artemis ignored the important part and asked, “What do you mean working?”

“I went to see the Crown Jewels.”

His ears perked up. “Oh?”

“Yeah, they were pretty but like, didn’t give me the same tingly feeling your compact thinger did. Might end up being a dead end.” Minako flopped down on the bed next to him and did a full-body stretch. “So what’s the plan, fearless leader?”

Artemis scratched at his ear pensively. “Are we sure those are the real Crown Jewels?”

“I heard someone asking the staff and they said they were, but you know, they might be paid to lie or something.” Minako pulled off her socks and tossed them into the basket by the closet. It was almost overflowing. She should have done laundry today. Just like her homework…

Minako turned her head away from her banal ‘Minako’ responsibilities and devoted her energy to procrastinating on them with her _other_ responsibilities. “We doin’ this then?”

Artemis’ tail flicked back and forth. “Later. You have homework first.”

Damn it.

So anyway, back to that secret mission. Hours later, Minako realized her running inner monologue had gotten distracted as it usually did. She opened the window and tuned her ear to the city sounds and the muted voices of televisions and telephone calls and whatnot coming from other rooms in her building. The street below was empty. The crescent moon compact was warm in her hand and she gave it a cavalier flip around one finger as she winked at Artemis and asked, “Ready to go?”

At his nod, she flipped the compact open to view her reflection. By now the motions were familiar enough that she added her own little flourish to them, holding her free hand to make a sideways V with her pointer and middle finger over her eyes as she said the words, “Moon Power, Transform!”

Warm golden light washed over her, leaving a tingling rush of energy from the top of her head all the way to her toes. In its wake, she had been transformed just-so; her long blonde hair seemed ever so slightly more sun-kissed, her eyes ever so slightly brighter behind the red domino mask, and her body felt lighter. Her comfy room clothes had been replaced by a white and red crop top with a navy sailor collar, a short navy pleated skirt edged in crimson, white opera gloves, and navy mary-jane shoes. A red ribbon that held her hair back from falling into her face completed the look. It was an odd costume choice for what Artemis called a ‘Guardian’ (of what they had yet to figure out) but who was she to argue with a magic compact mirror thing from the moon? Minako liked it so much she made it her online persona.

So yeah, while ‘Aino Minako’ was in London to study abroad, ‘Sailor V’ was on a secret mission to track down this super important crystal and figure out what the big threat to the Earth was while also hopefully helping Artemis get back his lost memories… on top of being an internet personality. Life was pretty awesome, all things considered.

Minako put one hand on the windowsill and hefted herself easily over it and up to the roof. Artemis hitched a ride on her shoulder, then leapt down to run alongside her as they bounded across the cityscape towards where the lights of the multiple bridges crisscrossing the Thames beckoned.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you about feeling nothing, but I’d still rather see the jewels for myself…”

“No, I get ya,” Minako assured Artemis easily.

“We can also poke around and see if there’s anything not on display.”

“Right.”

They reached the Tower area and paused on the roof of a building near by to observe. The doors were shut and the lights inside were dimmed from what they could see given the buildings were old stone ones with deep-set windows, but Minako spotted a shadow cross a window and the door, proving there were at least two, but most likely more, guards inside.

Still, they elected to try sneaking in rather than risk a disguise. Between no one expecting a cat to sneak in and Minako’s natural aptitude for it despite her flashy personality they easily made their way inside to creep around the upper levels and past the guards to the Crown Jewel room.

Artemis dropped to the ground and padded across the room to hop up onto the display case and peer inside. “Yeah, definitely not what we’re looking for.”

Minako looked over from where she was imagining herself wearing the lush silk coronation robe. “If you say so.” But come to think of it, “You don’t suppose the enemy will also be…” a dull thud sounded from somewhere inside the building behind her halfway through her sentence and she paused before slowly finishing, “...coming to… check it… out…?”

Artemis’ ears were flat against his head. “What was that?”

“Isn’t this place supposed to be haunted?”

“Wh-What?!”

“Scaredy cat.”

“Oh, you were joking.”

“Actually I’m not sure I was. I think there was a thing when I came earlier that called it the most haunted building in London or something.”

“Minaaa…”

“I cannot believe you are actually afraid of ghosts.”

Artemis opened his mouth to give some sort of retort but was interrupted when someone in the general direction of the may-or-may-not-have-been-ghostly thump asked, “Who’s there?”

Minako ducked behind the display case with the robe in a flash, and Artemis dropped down to hide behind one of the ones housing jewels. They silently communicated for the other to be quiet and held their breaths.

The soft sound of footfalls on the marble floors heralded the entrance of the voice’s owner. It was probably just a guard, not a ghost, Minako reasoned. She tentatively shifted her weight to peer around the robe.

The owner of the voice turned out to be a young man dressed all in white, so not a guard. A belted white jacket hugged his midriff over straight-legged white trousers and white patent leather shoes. He wore white leather gloves and to top it all off the thick wavy hair that tumbled around his ears and hid his face from her at this angle was also white. Minako appreciated the devotion to a monochrome pallet, but it still seemed a bit much… and maybe not the best choice for sneaking around at night.

Who could this guy be? What was he doing there? Was he friend or foe? Was his hair as soft and fluffy as it looked? Was he handsome?

Mystery Guy gave the room a slow once-over, gradually turning so that Minako could catch the briefest glimpse of his face before hiding. He was wearing a mask over his eyes, preventing her from getting a clear look at his face, but he certainly seemed handsome. Okay, now was not really the time. Think of Dan, Mina. Charming, attractive, friendly Dan you just spent a wonderful time with not a few scant hours earlier.

Sure Dan was cute, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t look at Mystery Guy, right? A little boycrazy devil on her shoulder countered. Even Minako thought she was hopeless. She also really, really needed to get her train of thought back on track.

Minako caught Artemis’ eye and raised an eyebrow quizzically. He responded with a shake of his head. Nope, Mystery Guy was still there.

Well, how long was he planning on sticking around? Did he know Minako was there and was waiting for her to reveal herself? Surely not.

“What are you doing in there?” Another, this time female, voice asked. Minako was so surprised she had to smack one hand over her mouth to prevent her heart from leaping right out of it.

“I can feel a presence in here,” Mystery Guy responded.

“Probably just one of the ghosts, come on.”

“There’s no such thing as ghosts…” soft footsteps and a decrease in volume signalled Mystery Guy following Mystery Gal out of the room, “...is there?”

Minako waited a beat and with a nod towards the door she signalled for Artemis to follow her after the Mystery pair. They kept to the walls and Minako made sure to walk as softly as she could. Luckily Mystery Guy’s all-white ensemble made him easy to track through the shadows. He moved smoothly through the empty tower museum as if he knew it, coming to a door with a keypad he disarmed without any effort at all by the looks of things. Mystery Gal, who from the back appeared to contrast him by wearing all black and red, preceded him through it.

With impeccable timing that she mentally noted to congratulate herself on later, Minako caught the door a fraction of a second before it latched behind them and slipped through. Artemis curled around her ankles once then jumped up onto her shoulder to hiss, “Careful…” and she nodded in agreement. There was nothing to hide behind in the staff corridor, and all it would take for the Mystery pair to find her out would be to glance once over their shoulders.

Mystery pair and their Minako+Artemis shadows followed the corridor to a door at the end, then down a set of stairs to a basement floor that had plush navy carpeting and ornately carved doors in rich dark woods that seemed far too luxurious for a simple staff area. Minako had to fight the urge to open every door to see what was behind them.

At the end of the carpeted corridor, they disappeared through another door and Mystery Gal could be heard saying… _something_. Minako strained to hear and inched closer, closer...

“...made sense after all,” Mystery Gal’s words finally became discernible, “Why else would they keep these items a secret from the public?”

“True,” Mystery Guy agreed, adding, “especially this…”

 _What? What?_ Minako was desperate to see. Artemis was shaking his head at her in silent warning but she ignored it and took the risk. One deep breath to steady herself and she peeked around the open doorframe…

...to look directly into blue eyes framed by a white domino mask.

Mystery Guy was facing the door directly, expectantly even, with his back to an open glass display case. In his hands was an elaborate, fancy necklace set with opalescent silver-white stones. With a cheeky grin he asked, “What do you think?”


End file.
